drily

comparative more drily · superlative most drily

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of dryly.

   “Anybody been here, Sammy?” asked Mr. Weller senior, drily, after a long silence.

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Samuel Weller Makes a Pilgrimage to Dorking, and Beholds His Mother-in-Law”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 279

   3 more examples

   Füssli […] gives an account of the painter which is largely occupied with a consideration of his masterpiece, the ‘Battle of Waterloo.’ He comments upon the prominence given to Wellington in the picture, and rather drily remarks […] that the rearward position assigned Blücher is not an ungraceful tribute to Germany ! the intention undoubtedly being ‘der deutschen Bescheidenheit ein Compliment zu machen.’

   1900, Ernest William Radford, “ATKINSON, John Augustus”, in Dictionary of National Biography, volume 2, page 224

   It was not until 1889, however, that Nat Goodwin's talent as a comedian of the “legitimate” type began to be recognized. From that time he appeared in a number of plays designed to display his drily humorous method, such as Brander Matthews' and George H. Jessop's A Gold Mine, Henry Guy Carleton's A Gilded Fool and Ambition, Clyde Fitch’s Nathan Hale, H. V. Esmond's When We Were Twenty-one, &c.

   1911, “Goodwin, Nathaniel Carl”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, volume 12, New York, N.Y.: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., page 239

   Haines, who had been laughing guardedly, walked on beside Stephen and said: — We oughtn’t to laugh, I suppose. He’s rather blasphemous. I’m not a believer myself, that is to say. Still his gaiety takes the harm out of it somehow, doesn’t it? What did he call it? Joseph the Joiner? — The ballad of Joking Jesus, Stephen answered. — O, Haines said, you have heard it before? — Three times a day, after meals, Stephen said drily.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 19